6.3.2 Variable Typing and Comparison Expressions

The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.

— The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Unlike other programming languages, awk variables do not have a
fixed type. Instead, they can be either a number or a string, depending
upon the value that is assigned to them.
We look now at how variables are typed, and how awk
compares variables.